JP2003260819A - Printer controller, printer control method, program for making computer execute printer control method, printer system and pos system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable printing by a plurality of colors on the basis of printing data for monochromic printing. <P>SOLUTION: A POS application program 24 executed by a host unit 10 outputs monochromic printing data. The printing data is delivered to a service object (SO) 22 as a device driver corresponding to a printer 12. A color adding process corresponding to contents of a color adding information 38 is carried out by a data processing part 30 of the SO 22, whereby a printing command for two-color printing is formed. A character color or a background color is added in units of lines of printing lines in the color adding process. The printing command formed by the data processing part 30 is transmitted by a command output part 32 to the printer 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors, a program for causing a computer to execute this method, and a computer readable recording program. Recording medium. The present invention also provides a printer system and a PO including a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors.
It also relates to the S system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A POS system used at a cash register of a store is provided with a printer for printing receipts. With this printer, sales data including the product name and the price of each product is printed line by line on recording paper such as roll paper,
The printed recording paper is cut off and issued as a receipt. The customer who receives the receipt may manage the shopping history as personal information by posting the product name and the amount of money printed on the receipt to a household account book or the like. In such a case, since the receipt is generally printed in a single color, the printed contents are difficult to see and there is a problem that an error is likely to occur when the receipt is posted to a household account book or the like.

[0003]

By the way, in recent years, color printers such as ink jet type and thermal transfer type have become widespread as printers for personal computers. Even in POS systems, colorization of printers is progressing, and color printers of two or more colors are being used. If the receipt is printed in color by such a printer, the receipt becomes easy to see, which is preferable in terms of customer service.

However, many application programs used in the POS system are created on the premise of the conventional monochrome printer. Therefore, even if the printer has a color printing function, the application program must be changed to print the receipt in color. Since such a change of the application program is costly, the store that is the POS user has a large financial burden. Therefore, it is desired that the color printer can print the receipt in color while using the conventional application program that is based on the monochromatic printer as it is.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to enable printing in a plurality of colors based on print data for a single color.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a printer control device for controlling a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors, and for performing printing in a single color. Print data processing means for performing a predetermined color addition process on the single color print data to create color print data for printing a plurality of colors by the printer;
A transmission unit that transmits the created color print data to the printer. According to the present invention, since the print data processing means performs color addition processing on the monochromatic print data to create color print data, it is possible to perform printing of a plurality of colors based on the monochromatic print data.

In this case, the print data processing means may perform the color addition process on a line-by-line basis of print lines included in the monochrome print data. In this way, since the color addition processing is performed for each print line, it is possible to clearly distinguish the print contents for each line, and it is possible to obtain a print result that is easier to see.

Further, the color adding process may be a process of adding a background color to the characters included in the monochromatic print data. Further, the color addition process may be a process of changing a font color of a character included in the monochrome print data.

Further, the printer control device of the present invention comprises a storage means for storing color addition information designating the content of the color addition processing, and the print data processing means carries out the color addition processing in accordance with the color addition information. It may be done. In this way, the color addition processing is performed according to the color addition information stored in the storage means. Therefore, by setting the additional color information as appropriate,
The content of color addition processing can be specified.

The monochromatic print data is output from a predetermined application program, and the print data processing means is configured as a printer driver that provides an interface between the application program and the printer. Good.
With this configuration, the print data processing unit that performs the color addition process is configured as a printer driver that provides an interface between the application program and the printer. For this reason, it is possible to perform printing in a plurality of colors by using an application program that can output only monochromatic print data, simply by replacing the conventional printer driver.

Also, a printer system can be configured by the printer control device of the present invention and a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors controlled by the printer control device.

Further, in a POS system including a printer control device of the present invention and a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors controlled by the printer control device, the printer control device is input from a predetermined input device. The POS application execution unit that aggregates sales information based on the product information and outputs the print data for receipt printing, wherein the single-color print data is print data for receipt printing output from the POS application execution unit. It may be that there is.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a POS system which is an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the POS system of the present embodiment includes a host device 10. A printer 12 for receipt printing, an input device (for example, a barcode reader) 14 for inputting a product code, a display device 16 for displaying a screen, and the like are connected to the host device 10. In the present embodiment, the printer 12 is, for example, an inkjet printer that is capable of two-color printing of a primary color (for example, black) and a sub color (for example, red or blue), and is controlled by the host device 10. Print the receipt. As will be described later, the printer 12 is not limited to the two-color printer,
The printer may be a color printer capable of printing three or more colors, and any method may be used as long as it is a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors such as a thermal transfer type as well as an inkjet type.

The host device 10 is composed of a computer system, and the control of the printer 12 in the host device 10 is performed by, for example, Windows (trademark) or the like.
Printer driver running on S OLE for Re
It is performed by tail POS (hereinafter referred to as OPOS). The OPOS provides a POS application program 24 running on the OS with a model-independent interface with peripheral devices such as the printer 12 and the input device 14. In order to realize such a function, a device control object (CO) 20 corresponding to each device category is provided on OPOS.
And a service object (SO) 22 corresponding to each device model.

POS application program 24
Outputs the print data so that the sales data is totaled based on the product code of the product input from the input device 14 and the totalized result is printed as a receipt. The print data output from the POS application program 24 is delivered to the printer CO 20, and is further delivered from the CO 20 to the SO 22 corresponding to the model of the printer 12. The SO 22 processes this print data to create a print command according to the command specifications of the printer 12, and O
The data is transmitted to the printer 12 via S26. in this way,
The SO22 absorbs the difference of each device (printer in this example) model, and the POS application program 2
4 has the role of enabling the program 4 to be configured as a program that does not depend on the device model.

The printer 12 in this embodiment is configured to interpret and execute two types of print commands, a text print command and an image print command.

The text print command is a command for text printing. In this embodiment, in the text print command, the character color, the background pattern of the character,
The background color can be specified. As the background pattern, for example, "shading", "diagonal line" (hatching), and "solid painting" can be designated, and the density of the pattern for each background pattern can be, for example, "dark",
You can specify "medium" and "light".

The image print command is a command for printing an image of a bit image. In the present embodiment, the print color of the image can be designated by the image print command, and the image data registered in advance in the printer 12 as the print target can be designated.

However, the above command is an example,
Other format commands may be used as long as the same print instruction can be issued to the printer 12. That is,
A command system that can instruct the printer 12 to print a text and an image, and further specify a print color and a background pattern / background color for the text and a print color for the image can be used.

In the present embodiment, the print data delivered from the POS application program 24 to the printer CO 20 is for text (for example, character data such as a product name or price to be printed on a receipt) depending on the data format. The print data and the print data of an image (for example, a logo mark of a store) can be distinguished. The SO 22 determines whether the print data delivered from the CO 20 is text data or image data, creates a text print command or an image print command according to the result of the determination, and sends it to the printer 12. The printer 12 executes print processing in accordance with the transmitted print command.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the printer 12. As shown in the figure, the printer 12 includes a central controller 50, a receiver 52, and a command analyzer 54. The central control unit 50 causes the command analysis unit 54 to analyze the command or data received by the reception unit 52 from the host device 10 via the interface unit 62, and executes the processing according to the received command. The central control unit 50 and the command analysis unit 54 are realized by the CPU 60 executing a predetermined control program.

The CPU 60 includes a RAM 64 and a ROM 6
6, the first head controller 68, the second head controller 70, etc. are connected.

In the RAM 64, the receiving buffer 72, the first
A print buffer 74 and a second print buffer 76 are provided. The reception buffer 72 stores commands and data received by the reception unit 52 from the host device 10. The first print buffer 74 stores main color print data, and the second receive buffer 76 stores sub color print data.

In addition to the program executed by the CPU 60, the ROM 66 stores data such as bit pattern data of each character and image data of a logo mark.

A first print head 78 and a second print head 80 are connected to the first head controller 68 and the second head controller 70, respectively. The first print head 78 and the second print head 80 are print heads for performing printing in the main color and the sub color, respectively, and are controlled by the first head control unit 68 and the second head control unit 70. , Printing is performed in the main color and the sub color in accordance with the print data stored in the first print buffer 74 and the second print buffer 76.

The central control unit 50 stores print data in the first print buffer 74 and the second print buffer 76 based on the command analyzed by the command analysis unit 54. That is, when the command is a text print command, the bit pattern data of the character to be printed is read from the ROM 66, and this bit pattern data is sent to the first print buffer 74 when the printing color is the main color.
In the case of sub colors, they are stored in the second print buffer 76, respectively. At this time, when background printing is designated by the text print command, the bit pattern data corresponding to the background pattern / density is stored in the first print buffer 74 or the second print buffer 76 according to the background color. Also in the case of the image print command, the bit pattern data of the image to be printed is RO as in the case of the text.
It is read from M66 and stored in the first print buffer 74 or the second print buffer 76 according to the print color. Then, the first print buffer 74 and the second print buffer 76.
By supplying the print data stored in the first head control unit 68 and the second head control unit 70, respectively, printing with two colors of the main color and the sub color is performed.

The POS system of this embodiment generates a print command in which a sub-color is added to the monochromatic print data output from the POS application program 24, so that the printer 12 performs two-color printing (hereinafter
It has a color addition function).

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the host device 10 for realizing the above color addition function. As shown in the figure, the SO 22 includes a data processing unit 30 and a command output unit 32. The data processing unit 30 is C
A process of adding a sub color to the single color print data delivered from O20 (hereinafter referred to as a color adding process) is performed,
A print command according to the command specifications of the printer 12 is generated. Then, the created print command is output from the command output unit 32 to the printer 12.

As shown in FIG. 3, the host device 10 is provided with a color additional information storage section 34. The color addition information storage unit 34 stores a colorization flag 36 that specifies validity / invalidity of the color addition process, and color addition information 38 that specifies the content of the color addition process. The color additional information storage unit 34 is provided on a rewritable nonvolatile storage device such as a hard disk device or an EEPROM.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the contents of the color addition information 38. As shown in the figure, the color addition information 38 includes items such as a line unit, a color addition method, a background pattern, a background color tone, and an image data print color. Line unit: Indicates the number of lines in which the color addition process is performed. For example, when the value of each row is “2”,
As shown in, the two lines to which the color addition process is performed and the two lines to which the color addition process is not performed are alternately repeated. Color addition method: Specifies whether the color addition process is performed by adding a character color or a background color. Background pattern: Indicates a background pattern when a background color is added, and is set to any one of shading, diagonal lines, and solid coating, for example. Background color tone: Indicates the shade of the background color when the color addition process is performed by adding the background color.
It is set in three levels, medium and light. Image print color: Indicates a print color of image data such as a logo of a store printed on a receipt, and is set as a main color or a sub color.

The contents of the color additional information 38 can be set by the user on the menu screen by the color additional information setting section 40. This will be described later.

The data processing unit 30 and the command output unit 32 described above are realized by a program installed in the SO 22. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the contents of processing in this program. As shown in the figure, P
When the print data is delivered from the OS application program 24 via the CO 20 (S100), it is determined whether the color addition flag 36 is set (S102). As a result, if the color addition flag 36 is not set, the normal command creation process for converting the print data into the print command for the printer 12 is performed (S104). On the other hand, if the color addition flag 36 is set, then it is determined whether the print data is text or image print data (S106). If the print data is text print data, the color addition information is displayed. Color addition processing is performed based on S38 (S108).

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the details of the color addition process performed in S108. As shown in the figure, first, the index i indicating the row to be processed is initialized to "1" (S200). Then, based on the line-by-line value of the color addition information 38, it is determined whether or not the i-th line is the target line for color addition processing (S202).
If the line is the color addition processing target line, it is determined whether the color addition method is the character color or the background color (S20).
4). As a result, if the color addition method is character color, i
A text print command for printing the text of the line in the sub color is generated (S206), while if the color addition method is the background color, the background pattern specified by the color addition information is added to the text of the i-th line. A text print command for adding and printing with a sub color is created (S20).
8). If the i-th line is not the target line of the color addition process in S202, a normal command generation process for generating a text print command for printing the text of the i-th line in the main color is performed (S210).

Then, it is judged whether or not the i-th row is the last row (S212). If it is not the last row, i is "1".
Is added (S214), the process returns to S202. on the other hand,
If the i-th row is the last row, the process returns to the flowchart of FIG.

On the other hand, if the print data is image print data in S106 of FIG. 6, the print color of the image data is determined based on the color addition information 38 (S110). As a result, if the print color of the image data is the main color, the normal command creating process is performed in S104. On the other hand, if the print color of the image data is the sub color, an image print command for printing the image data in the sub color is created (S112).

Then, the print command created in S104, S108, or S112 is transmitted to the printer 12 (S114). In the printer 12, as shown in FIG.
As described with reference to FIG. 5, the print processing is performed in accordance with the print command transmitted from the host device 10 to issue an easy-to-read receipt in which color is added line by line as illustrated in FIG. .

Next, the setting of the color additional information 36 by the color additional information setting section 40 will be described. The color additional information setting unit 40 is realized by executing a predetermined setting program in the host device 10. When this setting program is executed, the display device 16
For example, the setting screen 100 as shown in FIG. 8 and FIG.
110 is displayed. When the setting program is started, the basic setting screen 100 shown in FIG. 8 is displayed, and by selecting the tab at the top of each setting screen, the display screen is switched to the conversion setting screen 110 shown in FIG. ing.

As shown in FIG. 8, on the basic setting screen 100, a paper width setting field 102 and a color addition process (color conversion) enable / disable (disable) setting field 1 are provided.
04 are provided. Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the conversion setting screen 110 has a setting field for setting the color addition information 38 for each item, that is, a setting field 112 for a color addition method (character color or background color), and a color addition. A processing line unit setting field 114, a background pattern setting field 116, a background color setting field 118, an image printing color setting field 120, and the like are provided. Note that, in the example shown in FIG. 9, the line-by-line setting field 114 is designed to input a numeric value for each line, and clicking “Δ” or “▽” on the right side of the input field increases or decreases the input value. Further, in the setting columns other than the setting column 114, the check boxes provided corresponding to the respective options are clicked to select the setting contents.
When the setting program is activated, the current color addition flag 3 stored in the color addition information storage unit 34 is stored.
6 and color additional information 38 are read out, and the contents thereof are displayed as default values in the corresponding setting fields of the print setting screen 100 and the color conversion setting screen 110.

Basic setting screen 100 and conversion setting screen 1
10 has a common “OK” button 122. When the “OK” button 122 is clicked, the contents set in the setting column 104 are changed to the color addition flag 3
6, and the contents set in the setting fields 112 to 120 are stored in the color additional information storage unit 34 as the color additional information 38, respectively.

After the color addition information 38 is set in this manner, when print data is output from the POS application program 24, the color addition processing is executed as described above according to the contents of the set color addition information 38. Then, the printer 12 performs two-color printing.

As described above, in this embodiment, P
A single-color print data output from the OS application program 24 is subjected to color addition processing according to the color addition information 36, and a print command for a plurality of colors created and transmitted to the printer 12. Therefore, even when the POS application program 24 is compatible only with a single-color printer, the printer 12 can print a plurality of colors without changing the program. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to issue an easy-to-read receipt printed in a plurality of colors without imposing an economical burden on the store that is the user of the POS system.

Since the data processing unit 30 for performing color addition processing is installed in SO22 which is a printer driver that provides an interface between the POS application program 24 and the printer 12, the conventional printer driver is replaced with SO22. Only by doing so, it is possible to realize the printing of the above-mentioned plural colors.

Further, since the color adding process to the text is performed on a line-by-line basis of the print line, it is possible to clearly distinguish the print contents on a line-by-line basis, and in this respect also the receipt becomes easy to see.
That is, the correspondence between the product name and the amount of money printed on the same line of the receipt becomes clear, and it is possible to obtain the effect of preventing misunderstanding such that the product name and the amount of money are read one line apart.

Further, since the printing color can be specified for the image separately from the text, the logo mark of the store can be printed in a color according to the wishes of the store.

Further, since the color addition processing is performed in accordance with the color addition information 38 stored in the color addition information storage section 34, the color addition information 38 can be appropriately set through the color addition information setting section 40 to suit the user's preference. It is possible to perform printing in a plurality of colors in a corresponding manner.

By the way, generally, in a two-color ink jet printer such as the printer 12, the frequency of printing with the sub-color is low, and therefore the ink of the sub-color is difficult to decrease. For this reason, when the sub-colored ink is left attached to the printer 12 for a long period of time, it causes an increase in the ink viscosity and a change in the ink composition, which causes troubles such as clogging of the print head. There is. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, even when monochrome print data is output from the POS application program 24, printing is performed with sub colors added thereto. For this reason, the sub-colored ink is also used with a frequency close to that of the main-colored ink, so that it is possible to prevent the occurrence of troubles such as clogging of the print head as described above.

In the above embodiment, the color addition method for text is specified by the character color or the background color. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the print color can be specified for each of the character color and the background color. May be. Figure 10
11 and 12 show examples of the color addition information 38 and the conversion setting screen 110 when such a designation is made. In this case, for example, it is possible to set the background of the main color to the background of the text printed in the secondary color.
The variations of two-color printing will spread.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the line to be color-added and the line to which color is not added are repeated with the number of lines specified in units of line as a unit. The number of lines may be specified independently. In this case, the number of lines to which color is added and the number of lines to which color is not added can be made different.

In the above embodiment, the printer 12 is a printer capable of two-color printing. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a printer capable of printing three or more colors (for example, the printer 12 is The present invention can also be applied to the case where a printing function of mixed colors by simultaneous printing of main colors and sub colors is provided or a case where a print head having three or more colors is provided).

FIGS. 12 and 13 show the color additional information 38 and the conversion setting screen 1 in the case where the printer 12 has a function of printing in three colors of the main color, the sub color and the mixed color.
An example of 02 is shown. In the example shown in FIG. 12 and FIG. 13, the printing colors of the character, the background, and the image are the main color,
You can choose from sub colors and mixed colors.

In the above embodiment, the present invention is a POS.
The case where the present invention is applied to the receipt printing in the system has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a case where a printer capable of printing a plurality of colors performs printing of a plurality of colors based on data for monochromatic printing. It can be widely applied to.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, as a preferred embodiment, the contents of the color addition processing can be specified for each image by distinguishing between images and text. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is sufficient that at least text can be color-added on a line-by-line basis.

[0053]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Printing in a plurality of colors can be performed based on print data for single-color printing. Therefore, the POS printer can be installed in the store without changing the program of the existing POS system, the man-hours and costs for changing the system can be reduced, and the utility value in the store is increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a POS system that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a printer included in the POS system of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a host device for realizing a color addition function.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of contents of color addition information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of printing a receipt according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the contents of a program that realizes a data processing unit and a command output unit.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing details of color addition processing.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a basic setting screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a conversion setting screen.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the content of color additional information when the character color and the background color can be set independently.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a conversion setting screen when a character color and a background color can be independently set.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of the content of color addition information when the printer has a function of printing with three colors of a primary color, a sub color, and a mixed color.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a conversion setting screen when the printer has a function of printing in three colors of a main color, a sub color, and a mixed color.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Host device 12 Printer 14 Input device 22 Service Object (SO) 24 application programs 30 Data processing department 32 Command output section 34 Color additional information storage section 36 color addition flags 38 additional color information

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Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A printer control device for controlling a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors, wherein predetermined color addition processing is performed on monochromatic print data for performing printing in a single color, and the printer controls the printer. A printer control device comprising: print data processing means for creating color print data for printing in a plurality of colors; and sending means for sending the created color print data to the printer. 2. The printer control device according to claim 1, wherein the print data processing unit performs the color addition process on a line-by-line basis of print lines included in the single-color print data. 3. The printer control device according to claim 2, wherein the color addition process is a process of adding a background color to a character included in the monochrome print data. 4. The printer control device according to claim 2, wherein the color addition process is a process of changing a font color of a character included in the monochrome print data. 5. The printer control device according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit that stores color addition information that specifies the content of the color addition process, wherein the print data processing unit includes: A printer control device for performing the color addition processing according to the color addition information. 6. The printer control device according to claim 1, wherein the monochrome print data is print data output from a predetermined application program, and the print data processing unit includes the application. A printer control device configured as a printer driver that provides an interface between a program and the printer. 7. A printer system comprising the printer control device according to claim 1 and a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors controlled by the printer control device. 8. A printer control device according to claim 1, and a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors controlled by the printer control device, the printer control device comprising: A POS application execution unit that totals sales information based on product information input from a predetermined input device and outputs print data for receipt printing is provided, and the single-color print data is output from the POS application execution unit. A POS system characterized by print data for receipt printing. 9. A printer control method for controlling a printer capable of printing in a plurality of colors, comprising: a print data acquisition step of acquiring a single color print data for performing a single color print; A print data processing step of creating a color print data for printing a plurality of colors by the printer by applying a predetermined color addition process to the printer, and a print data sending step of sending the created color print data to the printer. A printer control method comprising: 10. The printer control method according to claim 9, wherein, in the data processing step, the color addition processing is performed for each line of print lines included in the single-color print data. 11. The printer control method according to claim 10, wherein in the color addition processing, a background color is added to the character of the single-color print data. 12. The printer control method according to claim 10, wherein in the color addition processing, the font color of the character of the single-color print data is changed. 13. A program for causing a computer to execute the printer control method according to claim 9. Description: 14. A computer-readable recording medium in which the program according to claim 13 is recorded.